Pine Hills Neighborhood Meeting: Quail Project

November 19, 2015

Evelyn Andrade

The Quail Street Green Infrastructure Project was the focus of Thursday night’s Pine Hills Neighborhood Association meeting. Water Commissioner, Joe Coffey and engineer Neil O’Conner from the water department, talked about what has been done and what will be done to mitigate water damage from heavy storms.

Their project has been designed to target the flooding on Quail and minimize the runoff water in the sewers. About $2.8 million has been invested in this project that began in late August and is about two-thirds done. Additional work will continue on Quail between Washington and Central avenues through April 2016.

The engineer, O’Conner has been in close contact with contractors while interacting with residents and homeowners to get their feedback and help them address the flooding damages to their homes. The idea is to only store water for a short period of time and slowly let it into the sewers. This method is helpful when getting rid of ice in the winter.

“Some of the concerns that homeowners have is the flooding into their basements, to fix this we place a PVC liner in the trench towards the foundation to prevent any water from entering their properties,” said O’Conner.

“I visited a couple of people’s homes, and we realized that the water was coming in through their basement windows,” said Coffey.

“We designed a water system where the water from Central Avenue will end up all the way in Elberon. We are doing this by implementing a structure with three chambers traps. By doing this we will also get better water quality as well as control of the water. The water will go under and go over the second catch basin and into the third. Inside the third chamber there is a small orifice to slowly release water back into the sewer system,” said O’Conner.

The engineer O’Conner presenting the Quail Project to PHNA committee and residents.

The project includes Cornell University structured soil that was engineered to allow for storage and aid with tree grow. Underneath the sidewalks is actually structural stone with soil. Due to this project the sidewalks will be able to store up to three inches of rainfall. Next to the porous pavement with planting bed strips with the engineered soil that allows for tree growth. The roots of the trees will have ample space for growth because the soil goes 45 feet deep.

“There is no way of knowing how much litter will end up in the structure, the red cups are going to make it harder to maintain the aesthetic.” said Coffey.